34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW HAVEN MEETING 



On August 23 he wrote : 



"I am doing the glacial geology of the Ithaca folio and am getting some tine 

 things. Wish you could come out here and see some of them." 



This intense intellectual interest in the field upon which he was at 

 work was a striking characteristic of Tarr's mind. He saw much wher- 

 ever he went, and invariably sought to share his delight in his observa- 

 tions with others. 



The autumn of 1893 saw him teaching at Cornell, busy with the proof- 

 reading of his book, and working on the pegmatites of the New Jersey 

 highlands. In December he attended the Boston meeting of the Geo- 

 logical Society to read his paper on "Lake Cayuga: A rock basin," as he 

 remarked in a letter dated December 3, "the title explaining the con- 

 clusion." He adds : 



"My book progresses and all the proof is read. I am now on the index, a 

 most distressing job. A week more and the thing is done ; then I am going to 

 take up and try to finish my New Jersey material. I have a number of good 

 things there, but have hardly had the time to even consider them." 



January 7, 1894, he wrote about the appearance of the text-book of 

 Economic Geology: 



"Naturally I feel a trifle anxious just now as to the way my book will be 

 received. ... I have chosen my bed and must lie in it." 



Tarr was now well known to the geologists of his own country. In 

 March, 1894, he was approached with regard to a place on the editorial 

 board of The American Geologist, an offer which he concluded not to 

 accept. In November of that year he began to feel the effects of over- 

 work, which was the greater by reason of teaching in the summer school 

 at Cornell. This tired feeling followed him during the academic year. 



On July 11, 1895, he wrote : 



"I was so badly knocked down in June that I left before commencement for 

 three weeks in the field, studying the Erie shore in western New York. . . . 

 I have returned quite refreshed and am now in summer-school work, with a 

 small class of seven. In my spare time I am working on my physical geog- 

 raphy and getting in shape a physical geography laboratory, for which I have 

 been given an appropriation of $2,000." 



The Economic Geology had begun to yield returns, and, as we note, 

 Tarr had laid his plans for further efforts in the line of text-books. It 

 was his hope that after a few years his writings would put him in a posi- 

 tion to be able to undertake independent investigations in the field, at 

 which time he proposed to devote himself mainly to field-work. The 



